Ugh, not again. You’re digging through the cupboard looking for that triangular mesh fabric to make a mechanoid death eater mask for your chihuahua and you can’t find a sheet of it to save your life. Put that little yappin’ dog in a bag of cheese puffs for a few minutes and check this out.…

Since screaming on to the rapid prototyping scene in 2013, 3D Hubs has been relentless in making sure their message is heard. Billed as the “AirBnB of 3D Printing”, the company’s business model is based on experienced 3D printer technicians renting out their equipment to other users on a per-project-basis. Not surprisingly, the 3D Hubs…

We’ve just done a quick test of a new 3D model repair tool, CUR3D Maker Edition. The need for 3D model repair tools has never been higher, with the number of 3D printers increasing rapidly around the world. 3D printers and their software typically treat poorly formed 3D models in a bad way, often resulting…

4-Mation Is A Series of 3D Modular Zoetropes With Swappable Animations Before the introduction of film and movies, pre-animation devices like zoetropes presented a glimpse into the future of moving images. Using a series of paintings or drawings in different phases of animation, a person could paint the illusion of an object (or objects) in…

AstroPrint is on a roll. They’re announcing the release of another app today that does two things for 3D printing. Toy Maker is a free app that 1) introduces kids to the world of 3D printing and 2) introduces developers to the capabilities of AstroPrint’s Cloud platform. Toy Maker On the surface, the Toy Maker app is…

3Devised is about to launch their new “PLUTO” desktop 3D printer on Kickstarter. The machine is resin-powered and uses the “top-down” approach, unlike almost every other SLA-style 3D printer, which tends to illuminate (usually with lasers) through the bottom of a transparent tank. Instead, the PLUTO fires its light downwards onto the (hopefully) flat and…

It’s a week past the Holloweens, but there’s never a wrong time to make a cool helmet. Aside from protecting you from your dog licking your face to wake you up, random ear-punches by co-workers and people being intimidated by your smashing good looks, helmets are just loads of fun to make. You may remember…

New Matter has released a new desktop 3D printer that improves on their original design. We first encountered the company some years ago and were impressed with their approach. While their device was quite inexpensive, it distinguished itself with a sophisticated cloud system to manage and operate the 3D printer. In other words, it was…

MakePrintable announced an interesting integration with Cura that should make life much easier for many 3D printer operators. Recap: MakePrintable is a startup that offers a very powerful 3D model repair service. Their cloud-based software seems to be able to repair even the most awfully formed, but still STL-syntactically correct 3D models. I’ve tossed some…

Ladies and gentlemen, get your sample packs out, sit the kids down, and get ready to nub punch those chubby buttons into the wee hours of the morning. If you love making your own music, are mesmerized by the mixing of sound or have ever wanted to make your own MIDI controller, our Model of…

Sponsored by So you’ve got the concept model and a 3D printer that prints buttery smooth prints. But how much time do you have to tweak it to get the right clearance when working with assemblies or sliding components? This can be a grueling process or a glorious process. But, it depends on the approach…

MatterHackers announced a new, upgraded 3D printer set-top controller, the MatterControl T7X. MatterHackers, a California-based 3D print reseller, markets a variety of different 3D printer brands and a wide set of filaments as well, but to us they are most well known for producing a very interesting set top box for typically “dumb” desktop 3D…

I know what you’re thinking. Those fist-size storage capsules would be painful to swallow. But don’t worry, while they’re too big to dose yourself with a month’s worth of Omega-3 and too small to put on a squirrel mask and crawl inside of, these storage capsule containers are PERFECT for storing all sorts of random…

3DAGOGO, the startup company behind 3D print cloud service provider Astroprint, is attempting to raise funds through crowdsourcing. The MicroVentures campaign intends on raising at least USD $50,000 for the company, with a maximum amount set at USD $500,000. As of this writing, early into the campaign, they’ve raised a little over USD $20,000. On…

I know. I KNOW. You’ve got your desktop segmented alphabetically using a number substitution cypher based on an obsession with cigars made between the years of 1928 and A.I.G.F. You don’t need any more organization. Oh, but YOU DO, because when you see this desktop organizer, you’ll toss your codekey for stacks of 3D printed…

Stella, a “Polyhedron Navigator” provides a way to very quickly view and generate almost any type of 3D polyhedron you can imagine. What’s a 3D polyhedron? While you may bump into them in real life constantly, it’s a geometric concept that encompasses a broad set of possible objects. Wikipedia defines them as: In geometry, a polyhedron (plural…

When you’ve got five kinds of soup stored away in your desk drawer for safe keeping, along with that box of emergency chocolate chips, only the most advanced form of security will do. Facial recognition and eye scan technology wasn’t around in 2000 BCE, but they did have a type of pin lock that isn’t…

Germany-based voxeljet announced a new 3D printing process they call HSS. voxeljet is known for their line of very large format 3D printers, which are specialized for the production of casting molds. Many companies use voxeljet technology to produce large cast metal parts, and in many circumstances, do so much more effectively than using conventional…

With Mercedes-Benz announcing last year that it is now selling 3D printed spare parts for its cargo trucks, 3D printing is gaining momentum as a commercial strategy for large-scale manufacturers. But what does 3D printing mean for non-enterprise businesses and entrepreneurs? Can 3D printing really offer ordinary people the chance to change their lives? As the technology…

It may be a few weeks since you’ve had that dream of attaching articulating arms of grapplers, lights and small laser cannons to your upper torso, but that doesn’t mean you can’t start today. “The hardest part is starting your transformation into a cyborg. Scalpel!” is what my old business partner use to say. That’s…

Japan-based Mimaki formally announced a new and rather interesting full-color industrial 3D printer. The new machine, the 3DUJ-553 UV LED, is the first 3D printer for the organization, which to this point has produced only 2D color equipment. But they are a large corporation with decades of experience developing very high-quality printing solutions, today making…

If you’ve ever needed an excuse to buy a 3D printer, let this be the one. YouTuber Matt Denton recently 3D printed an entire LEGO ‘vintage’ Technic kit (#1972—released in 1985) scaled up to a full-sized go-kart. Yes—we’re talking modeling and printing all 98 pieces including the tires. With nearly 170 hours of printing time…

An interesting technique used by some Ultimaker users could put a better finish on your 3D printed parts. It’s called “Neosanding” and is a way for flat surface layers to be “polished”, so to speak. The technique has been developed by Ultimaker forum moderator Neotko from Spain, who has recently posted a version 2 method…

Italy-based WASP announced a new version of their flagship 3d printer, the DeltaWASP 20 40 Turbo2. WASP has become very well known for their reliable – and sometimes overly large – delta-style 3D printers. They’ve developed equipment that can 3D print in a variety of unusual materials, including local clay, plastic pellets and other substances.…

Last 2015, entrepreneurs Simon Breum Fisker and Jacob Lindeberg Kickstarted a compact 3D printer which made the technology more accessible to children. Aptly called the Sculpto, it requires a simple Wi-Fi connection and control via a mobile app. With it, they can print countless designs found on the Internet and, if they’re feeling particularly creative,…

Entertainment giant Disney has published (pdf) an interesting study on a compliant mechanism system they’ve developed to assist in 3D design, which could be very useful for 3D printing. What is a “compliant object”? They explain: Fueled by progress in technology and computation, however, many fields of engineering have started to embrace deformation and to leverage flexibility…

MyStemKits announced an international expansion of its 3D printing kits and curriculum, which could eventually lead to breakthroughs in 3D print use worldwide. MyStemKits is a US-based organization that provides educational packages for students and teachers to learn about 3D design and print in the classroom. We’ve written about them previously when they launched larger quantities…

There’s one question I often ponder. What could I stick on a rabbit to make it look more like a robot? You too? Oh, I agree, a bear… yeah, a bear could be robotically accessorized really well, granted he’s not eating you instead. Maybe you don’t have an animal to stick robot part on, so…

From something quite obscure a few years ago, 3D printing is now at the point where you can obtain a degree focused on the technology. 3D printing, or Additive Manufacturing, as it is sometimes known, has long been a single-course subject in engineering schools, or as a tool one might learn as part of lab…

For all the things it can create in its bosom, your average 3D printer is a lot of work. The best 3D printers are huge, expensive, and require more space than a young professional’s apartment can afford. On the flip side, cheaper printers are usually unreliable and are about as appealing to the eye as…

Ask anyone with a wood shop or a giant bowl of grapes and they’ll tell you, you just can’t have too many clamps. It’s not possible. You could have ten clamps–not enough. A thousand clamps–nope. A million clamps–WEAK, you need more. Jacob Stanton, aka jakejake, the gentleman who gave us the Squishy Turtle model, has…

Though 3D printing was slow to catch on when equipment was expensive and resources were hard to come by, we’re living in a different world now. 3D printing jobs are in demand. 3D Printing Jobs on the Rise Many companies and private individuals are embracing the convenience and practicality that come with 3D printing. As…

Neurotechnology, an algorithm and software company, recently announced it is working on a new form of ultrasonic 3D printing and particle manipulation. In fact, it’s set to shake up manufacturing completely through hands-free creation and assembly of products within a single machine. While you might dry heaved a little at the thought of someone using…

3D metal printer manufacturer Höganäs delivered a new machine to a client this week, but it’s not a typical client. Readers may recall my enthusiasm upon discovering Höganäs last year. The Swedish company produces metal powders for additive manufacturing, but also develops and markets their own 3D metal printing equipment. The 3D metal printer, shown here,…

I’m trying out a new online service that hopes to enable makers to work together on open source hardware projects. 3D Orchard is a web service designed by three enthusiasts hoping to ignite the development of many more open source hardware projects. To that end, the service offers three features: A browser-based community-style 3D CAD…

After last week’s model, we’re being extra picky not to print crap, and what could be less craptastic than a foldable mobile phone stand? Quite a lot actually, so don’t answer that. Still, we’re quite enamored with the design of this credit card size implement of mobile phone accessorizing bliss. Clement created this simple design…

Despite that old expression of “you don’t need to reinvent the wheel,” Michelin has proved this week that there’s still plenty of ground to play with the future of wheel design…and tires, too. Introduced at the company’s annual Movin’On conference in Montreal, the new Vision concept tire is a one-piece 3D printed wheel-and-tire design that…

“I got two words for you brochacho, CARBON FIBER.” Some 3D printers can print in carbon fiber, but this 3D printer is made from carbon fiber. Carbon fiber is an increasingly popular material in the 3D print world, due to its low weight and high strength. Multiple 3D printers now have the capability of 3D…

I’m reading an interesting story about how a photographer designed and 3D printed a specialty film camera and realized what this actually signifies. The camera project in question was undertaken by Paul Kohlhaussen, a photographer and designer based in London. Kohlhauseen, like some professionals, has an affinity for the older film approach to photography, over…

We’re keeping the theme of cars following last week’s Hot Rod model with a project that will be a tad simpler but just as fun. I think everyone from 2 to 200 likes a pull-back car. HOURS of fun to be had just pulling back a car, getting yelled at by someone because you’ve pulled…

A startup company has launched a 3D printer specifically designed for clay 3D printing. ClayXYZ, found currently on Kickstarter, has developed a simple and low cost 3D printer that prints just clay. But it’s not any clay, it’s the commonly available “air hardening clay” that doesn’t require firing in a furnace as most clay does.…

Have a hot rod project car out in the garage? Yes? No? What’s that? It’s more a pile of hot rod parts you say? If you look at my garage in the dark and squint hard enough, all of those boxes look vaugly like a hot rod… kinda. A hot rod is #3 on my…

Mosaic Manufacturing announced a new cloud-based multi-material software tool for 3D printing, CANVAS. The Canadian company has been busy building and marketing the Palette, which we’ve covered previously. This device is an ingenious 3D printer accessory which dynamically splices differently colored input filaments together in just the right sequence and lengths to enable printing of…

Previously the company marketed the AstroBox (no touch), which provided an easy means for you to connect an otherwise standalone desktop 3D printer to a powerful cloud environment, from which many interesting and useful functions became instantly possible. And that’s really what Astroprint is all about: maintaining a huge cloud network of 3D printing participants…

Hot off the trail of their One DLP 3D printer debuted last year, Taiwan-based Phrozen is back, this time with Make, “the world’s most compact, reliable, and precise LCD light-cured resin 3D printer.” If that sounds like a mouthful, you’re right, but over 240 backers have already put Phrozen over their Kickstarter campaign target goal…

If any of your hobbies involve turtles and/or squishing things with your fingers while giggling like a schoolchild hopped up on oatmeal pies, you’re going to love our model this week. Jacob Stanton, also known as ‘jakejake’, has created a small turtle toy that squishes down and bounces around on its springy little legs. They’re…

Stand-alone, desktop 3D printers seem to be going the way of the Dodo bird with the introduction of all-in-one machines, which offer more than simple printing. There are an increasing of companies who have eschewed traditional 3D printing to incorporate additional functionality. I used to think it was all a gimmick, but after seeing a…

Desktop Metal has finally shown their 3D metal printing technology, and from a first look, it does appear to be game changing in several respects. The mysterious east coast startup has been a bit of a puzzle for some time now. We’ve seen only glimpses of their equipment and hints of powerful capabilities. But now…

If you’re an Overwatch fan or just need an obnoxiously large and enormously uncomfortable, yet completely badass pistol to tote around, look no further. It doesn’t fire bullets, pellets, Nerf darts or anything else, but with McCree’s Blackwatch Peacekeeper in hand, people will know you mean business (nerdy, gamefan business). And, should you need to use it…

Last week Carbon and Adidas announced a deal to produce 3D printed midsoles. But how big is this deal, exactly? It’s hard to gauge the magnitude of a business deal from popular reports, but I believe it can be estimated based on the statistics shown to the public. Carbon has developed a custom resin specifically…